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Mervyns
Mervyns was a department store. Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris. It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares. Many of the company's stores were created in shopping malls; however some locations are operated independently. Based on 2005 revenue, Mervyn's was the 83rd largest retailer in the United States.1 In 2006, Mervyn's had 189 stores in 10 states.2 One year later, Mervyn's had reduced its store count to 177 stores in seven states. On October 17, 2008, the company announced that it would liquidate its assets through a Chapter 7 filing.34 All remaining locations were closed by the end of the year. The Morris family, having bought back intellectual property rights to the company in 2009, announced plans to relaunch Mervyn's as an internet-based enterprise.5 The proposed revival never came to fruition. History Beginnings Final version of Mervyns' original logo that was used from early 1962 until late 1989 Mervin G. Morris founded the first Mervyn's store in San Lorenzo, California (a suburb of Oakland and San Francisco) on July 29, 1949. The store was supposed to be named Mervin's, but the architect suggested that a spelling with a y instead of an i would be more visually appealing. Mervyn's was located in the midst of San Lorenzo Village, a planned residential community nestled between the cities of Hayward and San Leandro, composed of two- and three-bedroom tract homes built between 1944 and the 1950s. Mervyn's carved a niche for itself by having a relatively no-frills shopping environment that reduced overhead, enabling the store to price merchandise lower than competing department stores in the area. Mervyn's also offered significantly-discounted factory seconds of basics such as jeans, t-shirts, underwear and similar garments, as well as household linens, with flaws minor and undetectable by most. During the 1950s and 1960s, this made Mervyn's popular with the young suburban families comprising the majority of San Lorenzo's population. This marketing strategy was later abandoned before Mervyn's expanded beyond its original single location, but Mervyn's remained popular as a lower-priced alternative to national department store chains. The second Mervyn's store opened about 15 miles (24 km) south as an anchor tenant of the Fremont Hub Shopping Center, one of two regional malls in Fremont, California in 1962. Target years and expansionedit Mervyns' logo used from 1989 to 2004. In mid-1975, Mervyn's operated stores in the following locations, all in California: Alameda, Antioch, Campbell, Citrus Heights, Cupertino, Daly City, Dublin, Fremont, Merced, Millbrae, Modesto, Mountain View, Napa, Oakland, Petaluma, Sacramento-Point West and Florin, Salinas, East San Jose and South San Jose, San Lorenzo, San Pablo, Vallejo and Visalia.6 In October 1975, the chain expanded to southern California, opening stores in Fullerton and Huntington Beach. By 1978 the company had grown to a chain of more than 50 stores in three states,7 and Mervyn's was acquired by the Dayton Hudson Corporation (now Target Corporation). Mervyn's kept its separate identity as a Dayton Hudson subsidiary. The average store had 80-130 employees. There was a Store Team Leader (1), Executive Team Leaders (2-4), Department Leaders (7-10), benefited team members (full-time employees not part of the leadership team), and part-time employees. All employees had "credit goals", which referred to the number of customers that opened a Mervyn's credit account. Part-time employees were expected 1 per every 8 hours, and the leadership team was expected 1 per every 40 hours. When entering Florida with a store in Lakeland in 1986, Mervyn's began major expansions outside of California with Atlanta being the site of a particularly strong expansion campaign, followed by Miami in 1991. Mervyn's, which had not previously had a retail presence in the southern U.S. competed for mall space with JCPenney which later received top anchor spots at the Town Center Mall in Kennesaw, Shannon Mall in Union City (rebuilt as a DHL Distribution Center), and Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth (now Beauty Master). Stores that were unaffected were those at North Dekalb Mall in Decatur that was taken over by Upton's (Burlington Coat Factory now occupies the store) and North Point Mall in Alpharetta, which became Parisian and was rebuilt as AMC Theatres. This was also likewise done at the same time in Florida where the company sold ten stores to Dillard's which opened at Cutler Ridge Mall in Cutler Ridge (rebuilt as Regal Cinemas), Miami International Mall in Doral, Coral Square in Coral Springs (both are now Kohl's stores just like many of the other former Mervyn's stores today), Boynton Beach Mall in Boynton Beach (Dillard's converted the store into a clearance center using only half of the building), Broward Mall in Plantation, Pembroke Lakes Mall in Pembroke Pines, Melbourne Square in Melbourne, and Lakeland Square Mall in Lakeland (rebuilt as Cinemark and Sports Authority, which closed in 2016), the latter three locations became "double headers" for Dillard's. The locations at Treasure Coast Square in Jensen Beach (demolished for Borders, which closed in 2011 and became H. H. Gregg that closed in 2017) and Pompano Fashion Square in Pompano Beach (rebuilt as Lowe's) did not become Dillard's when being sold to the Little Rock retailer while some stores that weren't included in the deal were sold to other retailers, such as a larger Saks Fifth Avenue taking over an empty store at Town Center Mall in Boca Raton, where Dillard's wanted to open a new store there since its closure in 1995. Mervyn's had withdrawn from both Miami and Atlanta in 1997.8 During the 1990s, Mervyn's also expanded into Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Michigan and Minnesota. Category:Disappeared in the 2000s Category:Department stores Category:Mall stores Category:Kids Stores